Yuma man jailed on harassment charges

A Yuma man was found guilty on Friday of violating a court order of protection that had been filed against him.
 
An eight-person jury convicted David Donald Frei of two counts of aggravated harassment after a three-day trial before Yuma County Superior Court Judge Andrew Gould.
 
Frei's sentencing is scheduled for June 30. Each count of harassment, which is a Class 6 felony, also carries a 3 to 4-1/2 year sentence.
 
Although he was being held on other matters, Gould ordered Frei remain in custody since the offenses he was found guilty of were prison-mandatory sentences.
 
Frei was originally indicted on the charges in October of 2007.
 
In June 2003, a jury in Superior Court convicted Frei of child abuse and sentenced him to 4-1/2 years in prison for telling his then-7-year-old daughter to swallow a Clonazapam pill, a prescription sleeping medication, during a visit to his home.
 
However, that conviction was overturned in 2005 by the Arizona Court of Appeals and remanded back to Yuma County Superior Court for further proceedings.
  
A Yuma County Superior Court judge later dismissed the child abuse case against Frei after a prosecutor said the county attorney's office would not seek a new trial.
 
Frei had also filed a suit in Yuma County Superior Court in December 1997 alleging that Robert Trupia, formerly a monsignor and associate pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, molested him on several occasions while he was a student at St. Francis School from 1973 to 1974.
 
The case was settled out of court in 2002 and church officials in Tucson stripped Trupia, who had already been suspended in 1992, of his priesthood.
 
According to The Sun's archives, Frei's settlement was for $1.7 million. He was awarded the settlement a year before he went to trial.

--
James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.